Aberdeen council leaders have claimed that Finance Secretary Derek Mackay “misled parliament” in an ongoing row over government funding.
Conservative Douglas Lumsden and Aberdeen Labour’s Jenny Laing have written joint letters to both Holyrood’s presiding officer Ken Macintosh and the Commissioner for Ethical Standards amid claims that the city has lost out on £1.6million of promised cash this year.
The Scottish Government insists the city has been fairly funded over recent years.
The row has been sparked by the 85% funding floor policy – where each council is supposed to receive at least 85% of the average total government funding per head.
City council officials say this year’s allocation is only 84.69%, leaving a shortfall of about £1.6million.
But the government insists that the council had received an average of 85.42% – meaning an extra £3.19million for the council’s coffers – since the policy was first introduced in 2012,
The city council have been backed by national council body COSLA and a meeting is expected to take place between the council leaders and Mr Mackay.
In their letters, Mr Lumsden and Mrs Laing say that Mr Mackay misled parliament in an answer to a question on the 85% policy posed by north-east Conservative Liam Kerr.
The letter reads: “On March 29, following correspondence between the council and the Cabinet Secretary, we received notification that the grant revenue funding for Aberdeen City Council was to be 84.67%.
“This reduction from the 85% average means that Aberdeen City Council is £1.637million short in its allocation of funding.”
They have requested in their letters that Mr Macintosh and the commissioner investigate the matter to make sure the Cabinet Secretary “either honours his commitment to Aberdeen City Council” or “corrects the record to confirm that not all councils received at least 85% of the Scottish average funding per head in 2018-19”.
Mr Mackay said: “Aberdeen City Council will receive over £354 million in 2018-19, £3.9 million more than in 2017-18.
“Since the funding floor was introduced in 2012, which was opposed by COSLA, the allocation to Aberdeen City Council has never been precisely 85%.
“This has delivered £3.2 million more than had the Scottish Government ensured Aberdeen City Council received precisely 85% of the Scottish average.
“It should be noted that I do not intend to ask Aberdeen City Council for the return of that £3.2 million.”
